


Quiet Introspective, A

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-17
Updated: 2006-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-15 20:30:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14797458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: Margaret watches over a special someone at the White House.





	Quiet Introspective, A

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

  
Author's notes: Special thanks to Flip who took the time to beta this for me and gave me words of encouragement. She also made me look at the redhead connection. Also to Heidi who gave me a push to write another story and now she may have created a monster. This is an old story that I decided to have archived.  


* * *

“So, Mr. Mullaney, what was it like to be so close to Leo as a kid?” Josh started.

“Please guys, it’s Tommy,” he flashed a familiar smile. “From the moment we were born, Leo and I were inseparable. People thought we were twins and that was okay with us. I mean he’s wasn’t just my cousin, ya know. He was my best friend. See,” he continued, “my dad was a drunk who liked to take his anger out on me and my baby brother. Leo was the only one I could talk to about it.”

“You never told anyone else?” C.J. asked.

“Tried once. Told my third grade teacher, Sister Mary Margaret. She said she didn’t believe me, but she musta told my old man what I said ‘cause when I got home that night, he was drunk and waitin’ for me. He beat me so bad I ended up in the hospital. He said that if I told anyone what he’d done, he’d kill me.” A sad look crossed Tommy’s face. “I was nine years old. I never said a word to anyone except Leo after that.”

Abbey put a sympathetic hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “I never knew. I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, well,” Tommy smiled wistfully as he put his hand on hers. “By the time you and I met, I had put it as far back in my mind as I could get it. And I mean, it wasn’t like I spread around back then either.”

“Still . . . it must have been difficult,” she sighed.

“Well, not so bad if we could make it to the park and climb the big maple tree there to get away from him . . . Yeah, it was pretty bad.” He took a deep breath and continued. “Anyway, Leo and I were only eleven when we got into real trouble for the first and last time. Spent a couple of nights in juvie. And boy, did we ever catch it when we got home!”

“Your dad lit into you again?” Abbey ventured. 

“Worse than that . . . Mom. She started in on us about how it had embarrassed her and my Aunt Kathryn, how the other moms were all laughing at the cop’s kid and his idiot cousin gettin’ into trouble. We were grounded for months, had extra chores, couldn’t go anywhere, couldn’t hang out with our friends, nothin’, just school and home.” 

“I can’t imagine our Leo getting into that much trouble,” commented Margaret.

Tommy laughed, “You shoulda seen everything we got into before that,” he paused, considering. “Actually, it was mostly me, and I dragged Leo into a couple of things.” Tommy finally admitted, “‘Course most of the time, he was really just tryin’ to save my ass.”

“So has he always looked out for other people? I mean, back when he was young, even then he was taking care of others,” Josh marveled.

“Yeah, even then,” Tommy smiled. “Ya know, I always looked out for my baby brother, to keep him away from Pop, but Leo was the one who took care of everybody else, includin’ me.” He wrapped his arm around Abbey’s shoulder, “And then of course, we got into those awkward teen years, which for Leo,” Tommy laughed, “still haven’t ended.”

“I wouldn’t let him hear that coming from you!” she joined in, eliciting chuckles and nods from all of Leo’s closest aides. 

“Anyway, when Uncle Thomas died, Leo kinda checked out for a while, if ya know what I mean. Got a bit distant with everyone, includin’ me. I guess he didn’t want me pryin’ into what happened. And when his family moved to Chicago to be near Aunt Kathryn’s brother, it tore me and Leo up. We were fifteen years old and had never been separated for longer than two or three days at a time in those fifteen years. For a while, we stayed in close touch, we’d see each other when we could. I went and visited a couple times, but we were a thousand miles apart. Wasn’t like it was around the corner or anything.” Tommy fell silent as he remembered that life-altering time.

“What happened then?” C.J. asked.

“Well, fortunately for all of us, that’s when Leo went away to finish high school at some place . . . I don’t remember . . . oh yeah, some old boarding school where he just happened to meet a guy named Josiah Bartlet. Musta been fate and all that. I mean, Leo and I had just been separated, and without soundin’ too self-important, Jed filled a huge hole that I left in his life. At the time, I wondered what in the world God had in mind when he brought those two together. Guess now we know.”

“Isn’t it strange?” mused Abbey. “One of the worst moments in Leo’s life led to some of the best.” 

Tommy nodded, “A few years later, we all graduated, went off to college, Leo to Michigan, me to UCLA, and well, we all know where the President went.”

“Why UCLA? I mean, you went into the Navy, didn’t you?” Abbey clarified.

“Yeah, I did the ROTC thing and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Navy right out of college. It was the only way I could pay for college and I figured I’d get drafted eventually anyway. As far as UCLA goes, I went there because it was about as far away from my father as I could get.” 

“Well, that and Vietnam,” Abbey added.

“Yeah,” Tommy chuckled. “Anyway, I became a SEAL, and was sent to ‘Nam and put in charge of a bunch of guys fresh from training.”

“SEALS in Vietnam?,” asked Charlie, who had joined the group.

“Are you kidding? They sent us guys up the Mekong first, before they sent in the back-ups, you know, jet-jocks like Leo.”

“Tommy this is Jed’s body man, Charlie,” the First Lady introduced. “Charlie, Tommy Mullaney, Leo’s cousin.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Mullaney. I guess I forgot, or maybe I just didn’t realized how important the waterways were in the effort,” he admitted

“It’s okay, Kid. Most days I try to forget too. And call me Tommy,” he added.

“I don’t mean to harp on this,” Margaret continued, “but you two are exactly alike. I mean, you sound alike, except for a little bit of an accent, you have the same smile, you both walk the same, you even have the same limp!” 

“Yeah, Leo got his gettin’ shot up in his jet and breakin’ his leg after bailin’. I got mine from a ruptured Achilles. We were on a mission, and I took a strafing bullet right through the heel. Just about drowned before I got outta there. Got separated from my squad and had to wait for two days before they could come get me. Kinda messed me up pretty good, in more ways than one. In fact, I tried to forget it by getting a little drunk one day. It lasted two months.”

The staff all stared at Tommy wondering the same thing. They thought it too much of a coincidence that these two men, who looked so much alike could have that in common as well. Leo’s drinking and drug problems weren’t secrets after all.

Tommy saw the looks. He shrugged and grinned, “Yeah unfortunately, Leo and I both fell into the deep end of that gene pool. I’m a recovering alcoholic too. Haven’t had a drink in over twelve years though, ever since I found out about my oldest son, got remarried to my ex-wife, and she got pregnant again. I promised myself to never do to my kids what my Old Man did to me and my little brother.”

“How are those kids anyway?” Leo interrupted as he returned from the Oval Office.

“You finally get the President straightened out?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah. It took longer than I expected, but you know how that goes.”

“Well, he is gettin’ older,” Tommy observed.

“Please don’t let him hear you say that,” Leo grimaced. “Abbey, the President would like you to step back in.” As she passed her friend, he caught her by the arm and whispered, “Something about a ‘special garment.’”

She smiled and cocked her eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yep,” he grinned.

“Okay then, see you later.” She whispered back, “Much later.”

“Mmmm. Have fun.” Turning his attention back to his staff, “All right everyone. You can talk to Tommy later,” he advised. “He and his stories will be here all week.”

“Good to see you didn’t lose your sense of humor in there, Leo.”

“Some days I wonder,” he admitted.

C.J. spoke for the group. “Thank you, Leo. Tommy, it was nice to meet you.”

“You too. Maybe I’ll see you later.”

The staff quickly filed out of Leo’s office, leaving the two cousins alone.

“So, you didn’t answer. How are the kids?”

“Growin’ like weeds. T.J.’s fourteen next month, Connor and Kevin turned twelve last week, Patrick is ten, and Erin is a precocious eight and-a-half, going on thirty.”

“What about Casey? Do you still get to see her?”

“Yeah, Roxanne and I talk a couple times a month and she lets me know when they’re gonna be in town. I call Casey every week though, and she has standing orders to call me whenever she wants. She loves talkin’ with T.J. too, and Erin loves talkin’ to her big sister. You know, she’s just turned thirteen, but I hope that when she’s a little older Rox will let her fly out on her own ta see us.”

“That’d be nice.” 

Leo knew how much Tommy’s life changed when Casey came along. A former co-worker, Roxanne Melman had wanted to share her life with a child and had asked Tommy to help by fathering that child. He was more than surprised at the request, but she made her case and, although it took a while to agree to help his friend, he finally acquiesced. 

Tommy was admittedly little more than a sperm donor when his daughter was conceived, but he had grown to care a great deal for Roxanne and the unborn child she carried. Their initial alliance developed over the months into a respectful, loving, caring relationship. However, after a visit from his abusive, alcoholic father ended in his own not-so-graceful fall off the wagon, Tommy concluded that he had no faith in his ability to be a good husband, a good father, or to even stay sober. Above all, he wanted to protect his child from having to deal with a drunk as a father. 

His daughter Casey was nearly five months old before Tommy saw her for the first time. Roxanne had asked if he was willing to surrender parental rights to Casey so that her new husband could legally adopt their child. But after he held that child and looked into her eyes, Tommy begged Roxanne not to shut him out, to let him be Casey’s father, a real father who could read her bedtime stories, help her with homework, someone that she would love, not just because he was her biological father, but because he would be there for her throughout her life. Roxanne admitted that she’d been angry and hurt that Tommy walked away from them when they needed him most. But as she listened to him make his case, she became convinced of Tommy’s sincerity and agreed to let him be a part of Casey’s life. 

Tommy hadn’t known it at the time, but she was actually his second child. T.J. was almost a year old when Casey was born. His ex-wife Zoey became pregnant when Tommy was taking care of her as she recuperated after a shooting at the L.A. County Courthouse. Tommy had called his cousin immediately after the incident had occurred and told Leo about a man named Meachum, who had contracted AIDS while in jail. After parole, he had no money for treatment, so he assaulted his parole officer in an effort to be sent back to prison in hopes they would take care of his medical needs. When the parole officer was ordered to drop the charges because the State “didn’t want him dying on their dime,” he sued both the State and the prison guards for allowing his cell mate to sexually assault him, knowing the offender carried the AIDS virus. When the jury found for the State, Meachum went crazy, shooting everything in sight, including Zoey. She nearly died on the spot. 

The day she was released from the hospital, the Rodney King verdict was televised. With the Los Angeles riots in full force, Tommy and Zoey shared the realization that life was too short to waste time. She admitted to Tommy that night that she had perjured herself on the witness stand in Meachum’s case, and felt guilt over the verdict. She was on her way to see the judge and admit her crime when the shooting started. Zoey felt responsible for what happened and thought she deserved getting shot. 

After surgery, she had spent many long hours staring at the scar on her chest as the physical evidence served as a daily reminder of her mistake. That night at Tommy’s house, she asked if he wanted to see the damaged shoulder. When he said ‘Yes,” she cautiously removed the bandage that covered the slowly healing wound. As Tommy stood and lightly kissed the scar on her chest, it was if the weight of the world had been lifted. He looked longingly into her eyes and slowly pulled her into a tender kiss. They ended up making love all night long, a gentle, deliberate love making that came from a deep and abiding affection they had never lost for one another.

Zoey’s entire life had changed the day of the shooting. Her recovery was slow and arduous, as she spent hundreds of hours in rehab. She made it all the way back, eventually returning to work. But after just a few short weeks, Zoey decided she could no longer work in the District Attorney’s office. She also knew that she needed to get away from Los Angeles and everything about it, including Tommy. She loved him and knew her leaving would hurt him deeply, but she couldn’t give her heart to him fully until she was sure of herself again. 

Tommy had gotten angry with her when he found out she was leaving, but by the time she actually left that night, he had made his peace with her. He sent her off with a blessing, with select items “straight from the mini-mart.” As he handed her a donut, he said, “Bread, so that you will never know hunger;” a packet of salt . . . “Salt so that your life will always have flavor,” and grape juice, “Wine so that you will know joy and prosperity.” When she kidded him about the grape juice substituting for wine he said simply, “So it’s a young wine . . .” As they hugged goodbye, she told Tommy that she would always love him.

Shortly after leaving Los Angeles, Zoey discovered she was pregnant. She thought over and over that Tommy should be told, but she hadn’t wanted to burden him with the responsibility. When they finally found each other again, she admitted that Thomas James Mullaney existed. That’s when Tommy made two life altering decisions: he asked Zoey to marry him again, and though he was already well on his way, he vowed to quit drinking for good, one day at time. She said yes, and he hadn’t had a drink in more than twelve years. 

Of course, Leo knew that Tommy had never really gotten over Zoey after they divorced. He always suspected that it was because Zoey had been the first person in Tommy’s life other than Leo to love him unconditionally. She taught him that love didn’t come at the expense of a closed fist, or at the end of a belt. Tommy learned that true love meant he could argue without hitting, disagree without hating, love without fearing. 

Shaking his head, Leo asked, “So how’s Zo doing Tommy?”

“She’s great. I’m really lucky,” he admitted.

“Yes, you are. You got a second chance.”

“And I’m takin’ full advantage of it!” He was grinning from ear to ear, almost as if he had some great secret that he was bursting to share. Tommy saw how his cousin was staring at him. “What?”

Now it was Leo’s turn to grin. “Zoey was always too good for you.”

“Don’t I know it?” They sat in silence for a few moments before Tommy continued. “You know I wasn’t really kiddin’ about one of our dads being both our fathers.”

“Tommy,” Leo sighed.

“No, really. I got to thinkin’ about it a few years back. Pop came to see me just before he died. Tryin’ to get absolution for a lifetime of wrong he did me, and Mom, and Jimmy I guess. I thought then from some of the things he said that maybe your dad was my dad too. Maybe that’s why my Old Man hated me so much, why he beat me all the time. Hell, maybe that’s really why my name is Tommy.”

“Does it really matter all that much now?”

“It would help me make sense out of some things. I hated him for what he did to me, to Jimmy. But as abusive as he was, I would have given everything I had just to hear him say that he loved me, that he was proud of me . . . He never did.”

“I know,” Leo said quietly, finally realizing that it didn’t matter who Tommy’s father was, and what did matter was that he needed to find peace. They sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts. 

Taking a deep breath, Leo finally asked, “So what brings you to D.C., Tommy?”

It took a moment for him to come out of the reverie he was in. “Came to see ya, ask ya for some help. You know the Clemmons thing you’re workin’ on?”

“Yes, I’ve been looking at it for over a month. Why?”

“It’s Zoey’s brother.”

“Ah, dammit Tommy,” Leo groaned.

“I know what you’re thinkin’, Leo. But the guy didn’t do it, and I’m representin’ him.”

“Then we can’t talk about this,” he concluded.

“Yeah we can, ‘cause you’re gonna be a witness for the defense.”

“No way.”

“Yeah.”

“No. Way,” Leo emphasized.

“Come on, Leo. You know he’s innocent,”

“Knowing and proving are two different things.”

“That’s my job not yours.”

“You realize what this is going to do? It’s going to put me into an impossible situation. It could cost me my job. Tommy, it could cost me my family, including you!”

“Leo, if you don’t testify, he could go to jail for the rest of his life!”

“It won’t come to that.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do.”

“No you don’t, and I’m not willing to bet his life on it!”

“Stubborn bastard.”

“Yep, just like my cousin. You gotta testify Leo, you just gotta.” 

“No.”

Eyeing Leo more closely, he pointed accusingly at the now closed door to the Oval Office. “You won’t testify because of him. That’s it, isn’t it?”

“Tommy . . .”

“Come on, Leo. You wouldn’t let an innocent man go to jail ‘cause of your friendship with him would you?”

“It’s not that simple, Tommy. This is much more complicated, and you know it. Clemmons has friends who are bad news and have been for over twenty years. They’re bad news for me, bad news for you too!”

“I’m not defending his friends.” Quieter he added, “He’s Zoey’s brother, Leo. And I’m not willing to let him go down without a fight.”

The door leading to the Oval Office opened, “Leo I forgot to ask . . . “ Jed stopped when he realized Tommy was still in the room. “Oh sorry, I didn’t know that you were still . . .” he noticed the tension that had manifested itself. “Hey,” he tried, “are you two catching up on things?” Neither of the them answered the President.

“Leo?” Tommy asked one last time as his cousin turned toward the window. “What do you say?”

“I can’t do it, Tommy,” he sighed.

“Yeah, okay. I can see that now,” concluded a disappointed Tommy. He crossed to the coat tree and removed the jacket hanging there. ”I guess I was just leaving, Sir.”

“Really? I thought Zoey and the kids might stop by.”

“Yeah well, maybe some other time. Good to see you again, Mr. President,” he said as he pulled his coat on. “Please give Abbey my love.”

“Tommy, what’s wrong?” questioned the President.

“Nothing, Sir.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Can’t help that, Mr. President.” He glanced back at his cousin, “Leo . . . see ya around.”

Leo turned from the window. “Tommy wait . . .” he started. 

“Don’t worry about it, Leo. I guess maybe it’s not your fight after all,” Tommy said as he closed the door behind him.

Jed stared at his best friend, “What was that all about?”

“Nothing, Sir.”

“I don’t believe you either, Leo.”

“Sir, please.”

“What’s going on, Leo? You and Tommy were laughing and making jokes when I left. I come back and Tommy’s leaving, saying that something’s not your fight. Tell me that’s not an issue and I’ll call you a liar to your face.”

“Sir, it’s a whole can of worms that we can’t afford to open.”

“Tell me about it and let me make that decision.”

“There’s nothing to decide. For once, this isn’t about you.”

“You wouldn’t turn your back on Tommy like that. Not unless it affected your family or this administration. Or me.” Jed squared his shoulders and looked directly at his best friend. “Leo, you can tell me now, or you can tell me later, but you will tell me . . .”


End file.
